The National Institute of Children's Diseases (NHD) restored the unique type of mobile application that is dedicated to all parents. The application to the children's hospital was launched as early as 2019 as one of the other major steps of therapeutic communication that the institute practices towards patients. No hospital in Slovakia uses an application that guides parents to the health status of the child and also helps to provide first aid.


The abuse of urgent incomes and outpatient emergency services is a subject that has been on Slovak health for many years. Although I can understand humanely the situation in which parents fear for their children and cannot objectively assess the health and need for medical assistance, we cannot tolerate the abuse of willing doctors, nurses or paramedics whose primary task is to save human lives. During my term of office, the Ministry of Health has prepared a number of stabilisation measures aimed at helping both outpatient and hospital doctors to facilitate their provision of health care. I am really grateful that other important partners are gradually joining this activity. In the first step, it was the General Health Insurance Institution, now the National Institute of Children's Diseases. Similar telephone lines and applications that help parents to assess whether their child really needs to visit the emergency room in the evening, whether outpatient or hospital, represent a great way to solve at least some of our health problems. I therefore warmly welcome such activity, and I hope that other hospitals will join, said Michal Palkovič, Minister for Health.
The application will serve parents in a better orientation in the sudden health problems of their children. Oftentimes, a parent hesitates in the event of an accident or a child's illness, whether or not to visit an emergency income. It will also happen that sometimes, unnecessary hours are waiting for an emergency, while with proper help he could treat the child even in the home environment. It is in such cases that our unique application, which we will discuss more, can help.


"There are more and more patients coming to the Emergency Income Department and we expect this trend to continue. Emergency reception in our hospital is already the most expensive workplace of its kind in Slovakia. Parents often wait for hours with the child for treatment especially in APS ambulances. Our aim is therefore to help parents, especially young children, in their sudden deterioration of their health or injuries. For both parents and small patients themselves, these are often very stressful situations where they need to make the right decision very quickly. The application is one of the things that can help shorten the waiting time for treatment. In the context of shortening the waiting time for examination, we also plan other things, such as building an X-ray workplace directly on urgent reception. One of the aims of the application is to provide early warning to parents, especially in the event of a sudden change in health that may endanger the life or health of the child. We believe that launching this unique application will help them in these very tense situations to orient themselves and in the shortest possible time to get answers on how to proceed correctly, when to go to the doctor and when their child's health will be handled in the home environment with expert advice., said NÚDCH MUDr. Peter Bartonik and thanked colleagues for their efforts to help especially parents of young children.


A team of specialists from NÚDCH worked on applications for more than a year. It is a simple idea, but rather challenging process of creating and commenting on the correct setting of the application. There is more that the new application offers, which is also very simple and user-friendly. ,In it, with the consent of the parents, are inserted identifiers and databases of specific children who are in the care of the application user that will provide him several services. The most important thing is the one who warns the parent when and how to properly start resuscitating the child, so that they know the symptoms of the actions and the order in which they should be performed. It will also help parents to assess certain health symptoms, signs of change in health status, urgency of the examination and, at the same time, according to the user's location, direct it to the nearest ambulatory emergency service (APS) and institutional emergency services (UPS).Mr. Marcel Brenner, Mayor of OUP MUDr.


What parameters does the application evaluate?

It monitors whether the child has an elevated temperature and if so, how long it lasts, monitors pain, changes in skin colour, possible loss of vomiting and diarrhoea, the presence of visible bleeding, convulsions and others. The application evaluates not only the presence of a given parameter but also its intensity and length and then evaluates these parameters. At the same time, the application also serves as an information portal, as we will also publish on it all important advice to parents concerning the health of their children. NÚDCH plans to restart the application from October.